After guiding Manchester City to their second-highest league finish in 16 years, with the club's highest-ever points tally in a 20-team Premier League, Sven-Goran Eriksson was finally put out of his misery by Thaksin Shinawatra today, with the Swede leaving the club 'by mutual consent'. His departure, a dragged-out affair that reflects poorly on the club and those who run it, was against the wishes of the Manchester City fans, and, surely, against all logic.

It begs the question, what must the new man - likely to be Mark Hughes if you believe the bookies, who have installed the Blackburn manager as 6-4 on favourite - do to keep his job at the end of the season? Rovers have given Hughes permission to talk to City (Why? Why let arguably the most-talented young manager in the Premier League leave without a fight?) and Thaksin and co must fancy their chances of persuading 'Sparky' to cross the red-blue divide in Manchester.

But would Hughes bring the success that the club's ambitious owners crave? And what now for Sven?